Thursday, August 14, 2008

The Circus

So, we went to the circus yesterday to celebrate my lil bro visiting from the military and also for my nephew's 5 year birthday. The boys (including my husband) had never been to a circus before, and they looooved it! I made my nephew a little birthday badge out of felt that was so cute and super easy, he loved it so much!

But, the girl was voted in high school as "Most likey to become a clown", "Most likely to bungee jump at the age of 80", "Friendlist", Homecoming Queen, Varsity Cheerleader captain, she won "Best Swimsuit" at her first and only pageant... and about 8 other class favorite titles that I can't remember right now. What was I voted for? "Biggest Flirt." I wasn't exactly a flirt though...

Of course, I took tons of pics of my jewelry yesterday, so when I pulled out the cam to snap some shots, the card was not in there! So, I will have to wait for my sis to let me use her pics. But in the meantime, I will feature some circus prints from fellow Etsy artists.

And for those of you who love random facts, here is the wikipedia entry of circus. While watching the Olympics (my fav is the gymnastics), I saw a segment on training the Chinese gymnasts. At the age of 3, they begin selecting gymnasts to train at specialized acrobatics schools. They learn to master balance, pain and flexibility at such a young age, but the culture is the master at acrobatics.

*Ancient Rome and China had circus like events, dating far back before Christ.*"Circus" is Latin coming from the Greek word kirkos meaning “circle or ring”.*Americans instroduced human oddities as a "freakshow" or "sideshow".

A word on freakshow entertainers who suffered from medical abnormalities. I would say what I think, but SweetheartSinner says it best: "This era of time makes me feel a little bit sad but at other times I have to wonder if the folks involved didn't feel a bit of agency in not having to hide in "shame" because of their differences.

7 comments:

I adore the circus. I can't wait to take my little daughter, Isabella, when she is a little older. We went to the circus 3 weeks ago "Le Grand Cirque" It was incredible. A big hit in South Africa at the moment is "Madame Zingara" this is a circus type event for adults and sooo much fun. Planning to go again really soon.Thanks for comment about my topaz ring and what out for my sales.

hey! We totally went to the circus on Wednesday!!! It was a little long for me, but I'm SOOOOOOOOOO glad we went! Kathryn loved it! And of course, we had camera problems as well--our battery died! Oh well. :) Glad you had fun! :)

Love this post! Of course I love circus things so this is right up my alley! As far as the sideshow 'freaks' I recently watched a true crime type show (48 hrs. City Confidential? I can't remember which it was.) and it was about 'lobster man' from a circus who had hands shaped like lobster claws and he was mean and abusive to his wife and kids and his wife shot him! It was horrible! I just had to wonder if his anger was from being mistreated his whole life. Well, on that happy and uplifting note I bid you farewell! (I'll be sure to leave a more positive comment next time!)

Wow, I gotta say I am amazed that the woman married lobster man in the first place!

I just watched a show the other day about a "tree man". It was sooo sad, his arms and legs had growths that litterally made him look like an ent (that's LOTR talk for a live tree). His wife left him when his condition got worse. :(